MCLEAN, Va., March 9, 2015 /3BL Media/ – In a speech earlier today, President Obama unveiled the administration’s TechHire initiative, highlighting the need to invest in training and development of today’s workforce and programs to train and engage the workforce of the future. In the president’s speech, Capital One was recognized for its commitment to help address the digital skills gap and train and hire more Americans for new, tech-focused jobs.

Capital One will support TechHire as part of its Future Edge initiative, through which the company will focus $150 million over 5 years to help more Americans succeed in a digital economy.

"Technology is dramatically changing the way we live and work. Helping people become more digitally fluent is essential for American workers and our economy," said Richard D. Fairbank, Capital One's Founder and Chief Executive Officer. "There is an insatiable demand for great technology talent as the rate of change across industries continues to accelerate. Capital One's Future Edge initiative will help motivated individuals build the skills required to succeed in the digital world. We are excited about TechHire and the opportunity, with Future Edge, to support the President's efforts to expand the talent pipeline for 21st century jobs."

Through Future Edge, Capital One will support TechHire and by working in collaboration with Opportunity@Work and other partners to help develop best practices to connect job seekers with job opportunities. Capital One is also working to support TechHire at the local level. In Delaware, Capital One has served as a leader in the TechHire Delaware initiative, a coalition being convened by Governor’s Jack Markell. Capital One is investing in TechHire DE to provide job skills training for technology roles and is committed to hiring program graduates.

According to White House statistics, America has approximately 5 million open jobs today, more than at any point since 2001. Over half a million of those job openings are in fields like software development, network administration, and cybersecurity, many of which did not even exist just a decade ago. Helping more Americans train and connect to these jobs is a key element of the President’s middle-class economics agenda. As part of that agenda, TechHire is a bold public-private initiative to empower Americans with the skills they need, through universities and community colleges but also nontraditional approaches like “coding boot camps,” and high-quality online courses that can rapidly train workers for a well-paying job often in just a few months. Many of these programs do not require a four-year degree.

Capital One’s Future Edge initiative will focus $150 million in community grants and initiatives over 5 years to help more Americans succeed in the digital economy. Working with leading educational and community organizations like General Assembly and Grovo, Capital One will focus on cultivating creative, new ways to help ensure the benefits of technology and innovation are being felt in communities across the country. Capital One’s goal is to help more Americans develop the skills they need for the jobs of today and tomorrow; help entrepreneurs succeed in the digital age; and provide money management resources to prepare people for future economic success.

About Capital OneCapital One Financial Corporation, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a Fortune 500 company with more than 900 branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Its subsidiaries, Capital One, N.A. and Capital One Bank (USA), N. A., offer a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients. We apply the same principles of innovation, collaboration and empowerment in our commitment to our communities across the country that we do in our business. We recognize that helping to build strong and healthy communities – good places to work, good places to do business and good places to raise families – benefits us all and we are proud to support this and other community initiatives.